Tag: Chelmsford

EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford – 2012

EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford: On Saturday 18th August I made my first (and quite possibly my last) trip to Chelmsford, Essex where the extreme right English Defence League were marching against plans to build a large mosque in the city. Chelmsford, the County Town of Essex, had in the previous month been given City status to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford - 2012
EDL members in the pub garden before their march

Until 1979 Muslims living in Chelmsford, Essex had to travel to London or Southend to attend Friday prayers. That year a house was rented for prayers and the following year the first floor of a restaurant became a mosque. As congregations grew other premises were found for worship. Permission to build a mosque was granted in 1992 but it was only fully completed in 1997.

EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford - 2012
EDL Essex Division spokesman Paul Pitt

Soon that mosque was becoming overcrowded and by 2012 plans were being made for a new larger building but there were a number of set-backs, including some strange and possibly racially motivated behaviour by the council, as well as financial problems and it was not built. In 2020 the Chelmsford Muslim Society were able to buy the Hamptons Sports & Leisure Centre which is now in use for both worship and leisure. The older Central Mosque in Moulsham Street is also still in use.

EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford - 2012
The EDL march gets ready to leave

Over two hundred people had come to the centre of Chelmsford for a rally called by Unite Against Fascism to oppose the EDL march. I went to photograph them first and then went along to the pub where the EDL were meeting. There were far fewer EDL, perhaps 80 in all, and most were in the garden of the pub.

EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford - 2012

I went close to the fence around the beer garden in Cottage Place and took a few pictures of the EDL inside. I was met with abuse and one man complained to the police – who told him I was acting within the law. Others made V’ signs and other gestures for the camera, and I was pleased there was a fence between us.

EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford - 2012
Police hold the Essex Unite Against Fascism march until the EDL are inside the cordon around their rally

After I had taken a few more pictures the officer politely requested I move away to avoid further upsetting the marchers and I complied as I felt I had already done all I could. Across the road in New Street EDL Essex Division spokesman Paul Pitt was being interviewed for TV, claiming the EDL were not racist and not generally opposed to mosques being built. He said that the size and location of the proposed building was unsuitable and that local people had invited them to come to Chelmsford and protest against it.

A few minutes later the EDL came out of the pub and formed up behind several banners for the march. I kept close to the banners at the front and to the police who were watching the marchers. They began singing racist EDL songs and as I stood on the corner photographing the march going past one man came menacingly right up to me and said “I hope all your family die of cancer.”

I was shocked, but followed the march as they were escorted by police for a short march around largely empty streets city and into a pen for their rally. Once they were inside police, sealed the street and allowed the UAF to sstart their much larger and more public march, far louder and with many more people, placards and banners than the EDL.

There was a single small incident where two EDL supporters came to the roadside and began to loudly shout ‘EDL!, EDL!‘ Police dragged them to a bench some distance away and held them until the march had passed and made clear they would be arrested if they interfered with it again.

There were several people in clerical dress, including this local hospital chaplain

The EDL were behind a couple of police lines perhaps 200 yards away as the march came to an end, but they will have been clearly able to hear the strength of the opposition.

I concluded my account on My London Diary: “Although the EDL managed to hold their march, it was a small event and went around the outskirts of the centre, seen by very few. The UAF and others held a long meeting right in the centre of the shopping area with much greater support, and clearly were far more successful and widely supported.”

Many more pictures at EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford.

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Chelmsford & Marikana

Chelmsford & Marikana – On 18th August 2012 I travelled out of London to Chelmsford where an extreme right march was protesting against the building of a mosque, with a rather larger protest opposing them. I travelled back into London where a protest had been arranged at short notice against the shooting of striking miners by police in South Africa.

EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford – Essex

Chelmsford & Marikana

I think this was my first visit to Chelmsford, the county town of Essex although it is only around 30 miles northeast of London and the journey from Liverpool Street station takes just over half an hour. But I didn’t much enjoy my time there and though I’m sure its an interesting place I’ve not been back since.

Chelmsford & Marikana

My day started fine as I walked from the station to the Unite Against Fascism rally in the middle of the city and mingled with the crowd there taking pictures. Everyone was friendly and I had no problems taking photographs.

Chelmsford & Marikana

But then I went to the pub where the English Defence League (EDL) wer gathering for the start of their march, where I was met with abuse and threats and one man complained to the police about my taking pictures. Some others more happily posed for me, making V signs but I was pleased the pub railings were between them and me, and when the police, who had told the complainant that I was within my rights to take photographs, politely asked me if I would move away to to avoid further upsetting the EDL I was pleased to do so.

Chelmsford & Marikana

I crossed back to the opposite side of the road where over photographers and TV crews were standing, and photographed the EDL Essex Division spokesman Paul Pitt who was being interviewed, polite and smiling for the camera, denying that the EDL were racist and promising “there will be no violence from us.“

As the march formed up behind several banners I stayed in front of them with the other photographers, not getting as close as I usually like to do to avoid any further trouble. Despite Pitt’s claims the marchers were singing some of their usual Islamophobic EDL songs, and as the march moved off a rather large and fat marcher came towards me as I was taking pictures and said: “I hope all your family die of cancer.“

I left the EDL march as it turned into the street leading to where they were to hold their rally and returned to the UAF rally, passing a huge police presence with various fences and cordons across roads to ensure the two groups were kept apart.

The UAF were in the middle of the busy shopping area and as soon as the police had sealed off the street where the EDL were holding their rally the UAF were allowed to march, going around the outside of that area.

The atmosphere on the UAF march was very different. It was several times as large with many more placards and banners and much louder, with almost continuous chanting calling for an end to the racist provocations of the EDL, though usually rather less politely. And the people were certainly much more friendly.

Two EDL supporters appeared at one point and began to loudly shout ‘EDL!, EDL!’ but police quickly moved them away and held them until the march had passed, warning them not to interfere with it again.

More about the march and many more pictures on My London Diary at EDL Outnumbered in Chelmsford.

Solidarity with Marikana Miners

I went back to the station and caught the train back to London and then got on the tube to Hyde Park Corner where, close to the station, a small group of protesters had gathered outside building where Lonmin, the owners of the Marikana mine, then had offices.

The killing of the 34 miners at Marikana in South Africa two days earlier had appalled many around the world and this emergency protest had been called as the news broke. But it was too short notice to draw a large crowd.

Lonmin, previously even more infamous as Lonrho, only occupied a small suite on the top floor of this recently refurbished office building. The building seemed empty and was firmly locked when the protesters arrived and there was nothing on the outside or visible through the glass doors of the lobby to indicate that this was the base of one of the world’s larger platinum mining companies, listed on the London Stock Exchange, with a revenue in 2014 of US$ 965 million.

After protesting outside the offices for around an hour the group decided to walk to South Africa House in Trafalgar Square and hold a rally there.

A speaker on the pavement in front of South African House told us how the massacre at Marikana fitted in to the pattern of exploitation and oppression that has characterised the mining industry in Africa. Conditions in many of the mines are terrible, with little or no attention to health and safety issues, and miners are on low wages.

One of Lonmin’s board members at the time of the massacre was Cyril Ramaphosa, who a few months later became Deputy President of South Africa and in 2018 President. Many blamed his emails putting pressure on the police to intervene for the shooting.

The older South African National Union of Mineworkers, a member of the Congress of South African Trade Unions COSATU which has strong links to the governing African National Congress (ANC) is seen by many workers to have done little or nothing to improve pay and conditions in the mines. Many miners including those at Marikana had joined the breakaway Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) which represented over 70% of the Lonmin workers and had led the strike.

Solidarity with Marikana Miners